Residents advised to drink boiled water as samples fail

Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 24

The Shimla Municipal Corporation (SMC) on Tuesday appealed to residents to drink boiled water as some organisms have been found in water samples lifted from various parts of the city from July 19 to 21.

The Irrigation and Public Health Department has also stopped lifting water from the Ashwani Khud through its Salogra pump house. The water is supplied to Solan town. This comes in the wake of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) taking cognizance of the “river of plastic” video. The IPH Department and the SMC had lifted samples from the khud and sent these for testing to the National Institute of Virology, Pune. The report is awaited.

However, the report of the samples tested at the Indira Gandhi Medical and College and Hospital (IGMC) has been found “unsatisfactory”.

Samples lifted from tubewell number 2 of the khud had also failed tests and found unfit for human consumption. Other two samples lifted from the same tubewell on July 21, before and after it was treated with ultraviolet treatment, have also been found unfit for human consumption, according to the IGMC report. On the other hand, 27 water samples lifted from various sources, including Sanjauli storage tanks, houses and localities on July 20 and 21, are fit for human consumption, says the IGMC report. Mayor Kusum Sadretm, who held a meeting with microbiologists of the IGMC, MC engineers and health officials, said, “Although organisms found in some water samples are not pythogens, residents have been advised to use boiled water as a precautionary measure. The MC has, however, stopped lifting water from the Ashwani Khud.”